The Implications of The Da Vinci Code

The Implications of The Da
Vinci Code: Part 3 of 3

[music]

Announcer:The 21st Century
has ushered
in events and issues that cause us to ask, "Where is God in today's
world?" In response, Dallas Theological Seminary presents DTS Dialogue
- Issues of God and Culture: The Implications of The Da Vinci Code.
Although considered fiction, Dan Brown's novel challenges orthodox
Christianity in serious ways. Thanks for joining us as we discuss what
all believers need to know about "The Da Vinci" Code, Part 3.

Dr. Mark Bailey:Let me turn
the corner
a little bit with that, as you both mentioned it. Jeff, tell me -- and
I think I know where your heart is -- tell me where and how the person
in the pew, who is riding on a plane, seeing the Dan Brown novel being
read, talked about at the water cooler. It's going to be the subject of
a movie. How does that person get equipped, so that their faith is not
wrecked by a social agenda that comes out through media?

Dr. Jeffrey Bingham:Well of
course,
first of all it begins with that person's pastor. And if the church
ever thought that it could go on a preaching agenda that talked about
other issues, more than it talked about canon, more than it talked
about the natures and person of Christ, more than it talked about the
doctrine of the trinity. If the church ever thought it had the luxury
to attack in its preaching time issues that were not fundamentally
doctrinal, then the church had been very, very mistaken.

We are playing catch up here over the last couple of years because the
church in many ways, the pastoral ministry in many ways, had not been
doing its number one responsibility which was never to allow the pulpit
to become anything else except the place where the faith of the people
of God is renewed, where it is taught, where it is preached and where
people week after week come to a renunciation and reaffirmation of the
basic issues of the faith which they confess. If the pulpit has ever
been used for anything else than that, then it has been misused. And so
the ability of the Christian to carry on discussions at the water
cooler or on the airplane next to his or her seatmate begins with the
responsibility of the pastor.

The other thing that can be done is to take advantage now and play
catch-up with the number of wonderful books that are being authored.
Dr. Bock is the author of one of them, and there are others, one by Ben
Witherington, which is extremely helpful.

And Dr. Bock will be coming out with a new one, just shortly, so there
are books being made available on these topics. The importance here is
that the church, once again now reorient itself to the reality that the
20th and 21st century are much more like the second century than
popular Christianity might have let itself believe.

We are not yet grown out of the second century, in a very real way; we
are smack, dab, right back in it. The issues that challenge the church
in the second issue are the very issues that are challenging the church
in the 21st.

Mark:That's great. I think of
a
passage in Ephesians 4, that the gifted people that God has given to
the church are to "equip the saints to do the work of the ministry
until
we all come to a unity of the faith, of knowledge, of the Son of God.
A measure of maturity that belongs to the statute, the fullness of
Christ." That's a power pack section that equipping not only for
maturity, but unity and purity in life which all has the doctrinal
foundation that one faith, one lord, one baptism, one hope, etcetera,
and that only can be found, obviously, in Christ, from the Scriptures,
in how God has provided that.

Darrell:That maturity is defined in
that
passage. The church gets to such a point that she's not being tossed to
and fro by every wind of doctrine. The winds are blowing right now and
the church has to be prepared to navigate its way through windy seas.

Part of that preparation is involved in getting familiar with the very
things that were talking about. Knowing, if you will, what your
genealogical roots are, as a child of God. That is really what we are
talking about.

Mark:Remember, working in
X-ray
technology here in the Dallas area while I was in my doctoral program
and probably the first time I ever got totally shut down in a
witnessing conversation by the son of a liberal preacher who had just
abandoned the faith. He said, "Mark, I don't believe in the Bible any
more than I believe in little green men in the ceiling."

I remember it was suddenly the criscross of swords between my faith
and a witnessing opportunity that I really wasn't prepared for. I
remember scampering back to my house and pulling out a volume of
theology that had all the arguments for the existence of God!

[laughter]

Mark:But the wonderful
opportunity I
think this gives us, the motivation, is what both of you have
mentioned, that doctrinal purity, doctrinal soundness and popular
culture have now crossed swords at some very interesting points: the
passion of Jesus, The
Da Vinci
Code. There has been attacks on the
text of the Gospels, and the text of Scripture, and "alleged errors of
the Bible" have always been around.

But who would have ever thought that church history, Jeff, which is
your specialty, and biblical manuscripts, New Testament studies,
Darrell, which is your specialty areas and the historicity of Jesus,
and his life and teachings, etcetera, who would have ever thought that
would be number one in two of the bestseller list in the culture?

But it really, I think, goes to show exactly to what you've been
saying: if
we're going to engage our culture, then there's going to need to be
some reading, some teaching, some dialogue, and to help our people who
are listening know that there great resources that are out there and
that are available and that are being produced, to not only respond to
the novel but in preparation on this case for the movie that's about to
come, and I think we have a great opportunity to really teach our
people truth, on which they can build their life and faith and also be
prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within, as they're
asked for it, in those locations.

In sharing this information and in responding to the culture, what
should be the goal? We can shut a person down by saying, "Dan Brown is
wrong. The Bible's right. That settles it, let's get on with it."

What needs to be remembered as we engage this topic at both the
historical and the emotional, or social, levels?

Darrell:I think as a
practical matter,
it is very important in the initial parts of the conversation to do a
lot of listening. The reason I say that is, there really are, the best
I can tell, four types of people, four types of responses to this novel
and they require a little different approach.

The first group will say, "I don't understand what the fuss is about,
this is a piece of fiction, I don't get my history from a piece of
fiction, so what's everybody worked up about?" I think with that
person, you just have a nice, calm conversation. You are exactly right.
Then move on and talk about some of the issues that it raises and that
kind of thing.

The second kind of person is actually a person you told me about, Mark.
I think you told me a couple of years ago that you were at your dentist
talking about this and he had raised the book with you and started to
ask you all kinds of technical questions that the book was raising, and
that kind of thing. And although I was struggling to get past the
picture of you having this conversation while your teeth were being
worked on...

[laughter]

...I was sitting there
saying,
"Here is a person who has had honest questions because they don't know
the history of the early Church." This book has come in, and taken a
black hole, and filled it with information, which they have no reason
on an initial impression, perhaps distressed I mean, their reaction
might be, "Well, I don't believe that Jesus is married, I know that is
a
bunch of hooey, but what about the rest of it?" And so that person is
asking very sincere questions, and I think they need be dealt with very
sincerely. That's the person coming out of a Christian background.

The person coming out of a non-Christian background, there is no reason
to expect why they would have any knowledge about this period, so they
are kind of in the same position and are oftentimes asking very sincere
questions that the novel has created for them so I think it's important
that you respond to them with a sensitivity of what they're trying to
wrestle with and what they're trying to process.

And then the final group as a group that has reacted against
Christianity, they're looking for a reason not to believe. I think with
that group you want to listen real hard because oftentimes what is
behind that reaction is a personal experience with the church or with a
form of conservative theology that has produced their reaction. Their
issue is not really the book; their issue is something that has
happened in their life that's caused them to react against God, Jesus,
and the church. They've put it all in one package and they're reacting
against it.

So, my initial piece of advice is to say get a sense of where the
person is on that emotional map. And then once you know that you've a
better idea of how to proceed in the discussion.

By no means do I think the thing to do is to react defensively or
harshly or anything like that.

Lay out what you can. The fact is that the history in this discussion
is very much on the side of the orthodox church on traditional
Christianity, there is nothing to be defensive about.

That is why I view it as an opportunity. It is a real opportunity to
correct people about what they perceive this early history to be.

Jeff:I
think one of the main things
that can take place in these conversations is to take advantage of the
fact that its basically a conversation of the reliability of the
Scriptures; so Evangelicals can make it fundamentally a conversation
about the Bible and it is amazing that the Scripture can be powerful in
the presence of those who do not initially recognize its authority.

So we can give thanks here to God, and take advantage of the great gift
that He has offered us in these circumstances to bring the Bible into
the point of discussion. They may not agree with the passages that are
in the Scripture. They may question what is in the Scripture. But
still, Dan Brown has made it a discussion about Scripture. Thank you!

So let's go ahead and talk about Scripture. Let's read it to them.
Let's point out to them the very passages that Dan Brown is
challenging. And in doing so, what takes place is the gospel is read,
and the gospel is heard, and wherever the gospel is read and heard the
Spirit can use that word to bring forth regeneration and faith. So this
is by no means an occasion for Christians to be frightened or to feel
threatened. It's an opportunity to talk about the blessed fact that God
has not remained in darkness or in silence, but he has spoken to us in
the light of Scripture. And people are actually wondering what's in
there.

Mark:On the question of
"early versus
late," it is ironic that we would take what we know to be
second-century materials and later and somehow give them more credence
than what we know are first-century materials.

Jeff:
Exactly.

Mark:Whether you believe its
Bible or
not, you know, even the historical record is there. But Jeff I
appreciate that because the power of the living Word of God cannot be
replaced. That's very helpful.

Just in closing, Darrell, we've mentioned your book, Breaking the Da
Vinci Code, and you've got others. It seems like you write
one about
every six months on these great issues. But Dr. Lutzer, one of our
graduates, has a book out on this. Dan Wallace, from our New Testament
Studies department, has a book out on this. We mentioned Ben
Witherington's book that is out. Any other resources that you guys
would mention that our listeners might be helped by consulting.

Darrell:Well, I think that if
someone
wants a discussion of the canon and the historicity of the recognition
of the New Testament, Bruce Metzger's work on the canon of the new
testament is very, very good and is very, very well done and relatively
simple to read. I mean, it's a difficult topic. Jeff has a nice,
little, church history.

Mark:
I was just getting ready to mention that.

Darrell:I think it is
called The
History of the Church or something to that effect. It goes
through the
periods of church history. For most people, their understanding of
church history is: we go to Revelation; we might stop by Augustine on
the way to Luther. Those are huge leaps, so it walks you through the
history of the church, and it also gives a nice little beginning
bibliography so if you want a rundown and want even more detail, you
can do it.

The beauty of Jeff's book is that it's short and crisp and takes you
through an initial overview in a real straight-forward style. So, I
would recommend that and then just follow what I call the footnote
trail for my students, in terms of the books he references if you want
more detail.

What has really happened to us now is that we need resources and
pastors need to talk about this, as Jeff said earlier. We need
resources that deal with what the New Testament does. We need resources
that understand how our Bible is put together. We need resources that
understands what our early history is, and what the controversies were
that we've been through, because we are very much back smack in the
second century in terms of what we're doing.

And in fact we have a privilege, in one sense, if you want to think
about it, of continuing the witness that has gone on for generations in
the church to represent Christ in a world that oftentimes takes strange
turns and twists, in terms of how it thinks about our relationship to
God. In a very odd and strange sense, we become heirs to the very thing
that Mary Magdalene was among the first to testify to.

That is, that as the recipient, among the first women to see the empty
tomb and to see that Jesus was raised from the dead and to declare that
to the Apostles. Who then went out and declared it to the world. We
inherit the mantle that she has passed on to us of declaring the risen
Jesus, the one who is at the side of the Father, the one who offers
salvation, forgiveness, and quality of life to anyone who trusts in
him, and in affirming the message of the scripture, ultimately, what
were hoping to affirm, is the message of the church and that is about
what God has done through Jesus Christ. On behalf of any and all who
will be responsive to what he has done. So, in that sense, the best
resource ultimately is to be well armed with what the gospel has to say
and what it has to say about who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

Jeff:Let's not forget the
fundamental
resource for the average Christian here, who may not have time to read
these books, may not have the interest to read it all from cover to
cover. Fundamentally, the greatest resource is what is going on in the
church on Sunday mornings or on Sunday evenings or on Wednesday
evenings.

What the music minister is saying when he introduces, or she introduces
a song, the songs that are being recommended, how the songs are being
introduced, what theology the songs teach, what the pastor is saying
from the pulpit, what the Sunday school teacher is saying on Sunday
mornings, what the preacher is saying on Wednesday nights.

That the church be very, very conscious of what it says at a baptism
and in the words that accompany the Lord's Supper, that the church be
extremely proactive in determining that the gospel is being preached,
correct doctrine is being shared, and that the entire ministerial staff
from the music minister to the Sunday school teacher take
responsibility for making sure that no one leaves that meeting without
being counseled and instructed in what the essentials of Christian
faith are.

The Da Vinci Code
is going to go away. Sooner or later The Da Vinci
Code will become just another book on the shelves and it
will be
replaced by something else. What the church cannot afford to do is to
allow itself to slip into the situation in which once The Da Vinci
Code has gone away that it goes back to preaching on
issues that are
not fundamental to the spiritual life and the doctrinal health of
Christianity.

The Da Vinci Code
has been a wake-up call, but for heaven's sakes,
when it goes away and when it becomes culturally boring, let's make
sure we realize the greatest resource is still what the ministers are
providing for the people in the community.

Darrell:And the one thing
that's not
going away, even after The
Da Vinci Code goes away, will be these
alternative approaches to God that will be a challenge to the church to
make sure that she has her stuff together, in terms of preaching and
teaching the gospel.

Jeff:
It'll come forth in other clothing.

Darrell:
Exactly right.

Mark:
In every generation.

Jeffrey:
Wolves are always there in sheep's clothing. It just looks different.

Darrel:
It is very important we be prepared.

Mark:
That's right.

Gentlemen,
thank you so much for
your insight, your counsel. And I think we have given our listeners
some material, some ammunition, some wisdom. And I appreciate you both
being with me here today.